“Okay, Tada, take a seat. It’s soup and sandwiches tonight,” Robin said. She and Cody had taken to calling their son ‘Tada’ because of his ‘magical’ entry every night at dinner time. Jeffrey thought it was pretty cool being called Tada. His sister thought it was a dumb name and made fun of it at least once every hour when they were home together.
Satisfied with his fire, Cody went to the dinner table. “How’re my favorite kids?” he asked the two. He was trying to keep the conversation light, even though things weren’t right with him. He walked over to his seat and kissed both of them on their heads.
“Daddy!” Jennifer said in an attempt to correct her father. “We’re your only children, so we have to be your favorite kids. That’s how it works.”
“Sorry, you’re right,” Cody corrected himself. He looked at his wife who was setting the bowls of tomato soup and plates of buttered grilled cheese sandwiches in front of everyone. He tried to give her a genuine smile, but it came across like a ton of bricks. “So, no school today?”
Jennifer shook her head as if she were a mother disappointed in her own youngster. “Daddy, we went to school this morning. You ate breakfast with us. We got out early. Didn’t you know that?”
“Oh yes. I forgot,” Cody said. He wasn’t thinking straight ever since he received the word about his good friend. Her husband’s actions immediately confirmed to Robin that something bad had happened at the college where he taught.
Jeffrey jumped into the conversation. “Pop, we got out early today, you know, because of Thanksgiving.” Two years older than his unbearable sister, Jeffrey was the complete opposite of her. Unlike Jennifer, who was very fussy about keeping her room clean and careful about doing things the right way, Jeffrey was more footloose and fancy free, so to speak, where very little bothered him.
“Okay Jeffrey, now I get it,” his father commented.
“Call me Tada,” the little boy said as he took a big bite out of his warm sandwich.
Robin had to grin, but she looked at her troubled husband. After dinner they had to talk.
After they had eaten, Robin cleaned up the kitchen and gathered a few cans and boxes of food from the pantry for tomorrow’s turkey dinner. Jeffrey and Jennifer went into the living room to watch The Wizard of Oz, the classic holiday special. They lay down on the carpeted floor with their blankets and got comfortable as the movie began. Cody retreated to his tiny office, which was really just a small
closet-sized, windowless room at the far end of the hallway. He had to jot down a few things he wanted to finish by next Monday’s class.
Cody had been teaching U.S. History classes at the local community college for the past eleven years. That was where he had met Robin Whitney, a young and beautiful second year English teacher. He had enjoyed teaching back then. It was his passion, his purpose in life. His students were great. They wanted to learn. They were eager to discover. It was a truly rewarding profession.
But gradually the whole educational system began changing. There seemed to be more emphasis on filing reports and filling out lengthy surveys and submitting lesson plans for college approval than there was for actual teaching. Standards were being altered to “accommodate” students’ changing needs rather than to enhance the learning process and preparing young people to succeed in the world beyond college.
Political discord and the demands of ever decreasing budgets became more important than the dispensing of relevant knowledge with tangible results. Instructors were told to limit challenging issues in the classroom, to initiate sliding grade scales, to de-emphasize the outcome of tests over the mere experiences of the students working their way through college.
Pulp over substance. That’s what Cody had seen happening.
Even the teaching books had been altered over the years. U.S. history was being changed by the textbook writers and publishers. Based on their agendas, politicians and educational leaders were able to input their own views into the books and subject matters which were being taught. Truth was being redlined, propaganda was being inserted into the fabric of American history.
Cody was uncomfortable with these alarming changes, as were other instructors. They were reminded, however, of “what was best for the students” and how “any dissention within the ranks of educators could result in specific downsizings.” Most teachers, including Cody Gordon, toed the line, even if reluctantly. A few instructors, not only at the community college level, but also in high school classes and four year universities, refused to adhere to Common Core liberal standards. They were there to teach, not to dumb down.
There were no official lists of the numerous, so-called radical teachers who were “let go due to their failure to follow internal policies.” But people working in the college knew. There were some educators who plainly could not tolerate the deceptions any longer. Some moved on by choice, while others simply vanished.
Cody’s friend and fellow teacher, Jonathan Campbell, was one of those who had ended his teaching career, not by choice or through attrition, but by reportedly committing suicide.
Chapter 2
It was almost six in the evening, well into the darkness of an early November winter. The cutting wind was gusting up to forty miles an hour and the temperature was plummeting toward zero. Possible snow was in the forecast, but the weatherman said the current storm conditions might be too cold to produce snow. That’s what Cody heard on the weather report from a small radio on the desk in his office space. The old house furnace kept blowing warm air through the vents, fighting desperately to combat the freezing air seeping through cracked seals around the aged windows and doors.
After checking on the children watching their show in the living room Robin went down the hall to see her husband. “Hi,” she said, standing in the doorway, pulling her wool sweater tighter around her. “What’s up?”
“Just writing down a few things for school,” Cody answered, trying to avoid what she really meant. His books and papers and lesson plans were piled neatly on the desk. He liked things organized, where everything had its place and was easy to find. That’s why years earlier he had chosen history as his profession. History had a sense of order, a precise lineage of time, place, and events.
A handful of sharpened pencils and ballpoint pens stood up in a soup can wrapped in a strip of pink paper and labeled “PencilS”.
Jennifer had made it in her first grade school project for her dad on Father’s Day. Hanging on the wall above his desk was Jeffrey’s hand made sign which read, “Dad’s Office.” The capital ‘O’ in office was a smiley face. Another sign beneath that one warned, “Don’t Touch My Stuff!” Cody had made that one. To either side hung framed reproductions of the United States Constitution and The Declaration of Independence. He loved the things in his office.
Robin remained silent, waiting.
“You know Jonathan Campbell,” Cody said, realizing that Robin knew him and his family well. For years Cody and Robin had spent many an evening at the Campbell’s home. Informal dinners, weekend card games, a few casual drinks, sometimes just coffee and pie. They were close friends until Jonathan had changed and their marriage had broken up.
“Of course,” Robin answered. “He teaches history with you at the college. We haven’t seen him for…what…at least six months, ever since his…”
“Divorce.” Cody ended her sentence.
“Did something happen to him?”
Cody had a difficult time saying it, but he did. “He was found dead in his office on campus.”
Robin looked shocked. “Oh, dear! How? What happened?”
“The police said he killed himself. They interviewed me and a number of other potential witnesses on campus.” Cody shook his head in disbelief. “I don’t understand. It just doesn’t make any sense.”
“You witnessed it?” Robin asked, horrified at the news.
“No, but I heard the shot, a loud noise came from his office two doors from mine.”
“Maybe he couldn’t
handle being alone. Maybe he was too depressed,” Robin speculated. “Maybe…”
“No! I don’t think so, but they said he shot himself!” Cody shouted.
“Poor man.”
“He wouldn’t have done that. I knew Jonathan. There’s no way he would have taken his life,” Cody tried to defend his friend.
“When his wife left and took their son he was devastated. He had to take a leave of absence from the college. You filled in for him.
Don’t you remember that Cody?” Robin said, keeping her voice down so their children couldn’t hear.
“Of course I remember,” Cody said sharply. “But something is terribly wrong, Robin,” her husband continued. “Yes, Jonathan had problems, not the least was his family leaving him. He was working
through that. He was beginning to accept the fact it was his fault. For god’s sake, I saw him every day after he returned to his classes. We talked about our work. We shared plans and projects. We had coffee together several times a week. He was the head of the history department. He was my boss. He was my friend, for crying out loud.”
“I know,” Robin added. “I didn’t mean…”
“He didn’t like the way things were being run at the college. He saw what they were doing. He saw what was happening to his students, to the entire system. It was tearing him apart.”
“Then why didn’t he just quit? He could have retired. He’s been there for nearly thirty years. Even if he didn’t agree with the school’s policies he could still teach. You told me he had made tenure a long time ago. His job was safe. They couldn’t fire him,” Robin reasoned.
“This time he must have pissed off the wrong people. He kept telling me over and over again to watch out,” Cody said. “He told me they were out to get him, to quiet him, and if they got too close he was going to go up the ladder so the higher ups knew what was going on.”
Robin pulled back. “What did that mean?”
“I know he sounded paranoid, but maybe there was a good reason. He was fighting the dean, the college president, even the state department of education. The whole thing, top to bottom. In our department meetings he’d speak his mind no matter who was there. He didn’t care. He just wanted to do what was right.” Cody stopped. He admired his friend, but he believed sometimes Jonathan did go over the edge to make his point. Sometimes he was too in-your-face for his own good.
“You knew Jonathan. He wouldn’t back down. To him, what was right was right, and he’d never give in,” Cody insisted.
Robin took a second before answering. “Maybe that was part of his problem. Maybe he should have backed off and let things go.”
Cody hesitated, and then he decided to tell his wife what had been bothering him for the past couple of days. “On Monday he told me something that scared the hell out of me.”
Now Robin felt frightened. “What did he say, Cody?”
“He told me he couldn’t go up the ladder. There was nobody he could tell about how the education system was destroying our country. He could prove how students were being dumbed down. He had evidence that the citizens of this country were being lied to every time they heard or read the news. He could corroborate how every new law was written to empower the government and gradually take rights away from the people. He had hard proof that every government educational report was manipulated or completely falsified to give the citizens a false sense of things getting better and safer.”
“But Cody….”
He put his hand up to stop his wife. “Jonathan also told me the changes came from the top down, not from the bottom up. It gets even worse,” Cody said, still having a difficult time believing what Jonathan had told him last. “A new constitution has been signed. Do you know what that means? The highest powers in the country are behind this massive fraud. The country has been taken over, Robin. It’s all about money and power. Real education isn’t important any longer. People don’t matter to them anymore.”
“You’re scaring me now,” Robin said. A worried look formed on her face. She knew enough about American history and its dirty politics. But at that moment she didn’t care. “Cody, please let this thing go. You have a family. Let someone else get in trouble, if that’s what they want.”
Cody shook his head and bit his lip. “Robin, I love you, you know that. I don’t want to get into an argument, but on this you’re wrong. Jonathan tried to fix the system and he got killed for it. Someone has to do something about this.”
“Someone else, not you.”
Her husband sat quietly at his desk. He looked at his wall. Some of the most important words ever written stared down at him.
“Cody, I’m sorry about Jonathan. But you said he shot himself. It was suicide. Maybe there was something else bothering him.”
“No, that’s what the police said. It wasn’t suicide, Robin. Someone killed him to shut him up.”
“How can you even say that? The police said…”
Cody stopped her. “They lied. Someone is trying to cover this up. I know it.”
“But how do you know for certain?” she asked. By this time she was on the verge of tears.
Cody looked up at his wife with a clear sense in his eyes. “Because, Robin. Jonathan never owned a gun. He’d never even touched a gun. He hated guns.”
Chapter 3
Cody rose from his chair and took his wife’s hand. He kissed Robin on her lips. “Everything will be fine, honey. I won’t do anything stupid.” He promised himself he would call the police on Friday to see if they had any more information about his friend. He wanted to put the situation with Jonathan behind him, at least for the Thanksgiving weekend. “Let’s go watch the Wizard of Oz with the kids,” he said.
He shut the hallway light off as they went toward the TV room. The wall light flickered and then popped like a small firecracker. “Hell,” Cody said. “Where are the extra bulbs, Robin?”
“In the kitchen, top drawer on the right,” she hollered back as she settled on the living room floor with Jeffrey and Jennifer.
Cody pulled the drawer open, moved aside a couple flashlights, a few small tools, and found a box of 60-watt bulbs. He went back to the hall light, changed the bulb, and threw the burnt out one in his office trash bin.
He then went back to the kitchen, opened the pantry door, and picked up a metal canister filled with mini-chocolate chip cookies. “Who wants cookies?” he shouted as he entered the living room.
“I do. I do,” both kids screamed with joy.
“How can it get any better? Munchkins and mini-chocolate chips.” Cody gave the container to his wife. The kids laughed at their father’s
silly joke. He was referring to the part of the movie already playing where three short Munchkins from the Land of Oz strolled up to Dorothy and sang their lollipop theme.
That was Jeffrey’s cue. He threw his blanket aside and got up off the floor. Then he re-enacted the funny dance scene and bowed when he was done. “Tada!” he said, and got comfortable once again under his blanket.
Cody went to the fireplace and put a few more logs on the fire. He looked at his children and his wife nibbling on cookies. “How about some hot chocolate too?”
A chorus of ‘yeses’ filled the room. He went to the sink, filled the tea kettle with water, placed it on a stove burner, and turned the front knob to ‘on.’
This was how it was supposed to be.
Suddenly the television turned off. The house lights shut off simultaneously as well. Jennifer began screaming. She was always afraid of the dark, even though the burning fireplace cast reassuring light throughout the living room.
“It’s okay,” Robin tried to calm her daughter. “The lights will come back on in a few minutes.”
Jeffrey liked it. He stared at the fire and smiled. “Cool.”
Cody reacted quickly. “It’s just the storm. I’ll go check the electrical panel. Probably tripped a breaker.”
Robin rose to her feet. “I’ll get the candles out of the cabinet. You
children remain where you are, and stay covered.”
Cody found his way back into the kitchen and retrieved a flashlight from the light bulb drawer. He checked to make sure it worked. The wind was still blowing hard, so this time he pulled his jacket from the door peg and put it on. “I’ll be right back, save me some cookies,” he joked with the kids.
He went out the back door and walked to the side of the house where the electrical box was. With the help of his flashlight he opened the panel and looked for any tripped circuit breakers. It had happened a few times over the years, an electrical surge, too many appliances running at the same time, too many Christmas lights on one circuit.
Just flip the switch and that was all it took. But this time all the breakers seemed to be on. He flipped the main breaker just to be sure. Peeking around the corner he could see that no lights had come on.
Had to be the storm, he figured. During the few minutes he was outside, his fingers were beginning to freeze. When he went back into the house Robin had set up several lit candles. The kids were still in place and the fire was going strong. “It’s not the breakers,” he said to his wife. “The storm must have knocked out a transformer nearby, or snapped some electrical lines.”
Cody shook the cold from his jacket and rubbed his hands together to warm them. A hot cup of coffee would go well right now, but their stove was electric. No hot chocolate either. “Guess we’ll have to make the best of it,” he said to no one in particular.
“I don’t like the dark,” Jennifer said, keeping a tight grip on her blanket.
“It’s fine sweetie,” her mother said. “Let’s sing a song.”
“Okay,” Jeffrey said, and he began. “We are the lollipop kids, the lollipop kids…”
“Let’s choose another song,” Robin smiled.
“I’m calling the electric company. They should know what happened and might be able to tell us when the lights will come back on,” Cody said. He moved toward the kitchen again, pulled out his cell phone, looking for his long list of saved numbers. His phone didn’t light up. It didn’t even turn on. Frustrated, he called out to his wife. “My phone’s dead. It must need a charge. I’ll have to use your phone.”
Treasonous Behavior- in the Beginning Page 3